How to view videos on a mobile/tablet if located in a 'private' gallery

pablos29

Hi, I recently uploaded some family photos/videos to my SmugMug site with the intention of viewing them on my Ipad/phone. I tried to view these videos through both Safari ('Error 404 file not found' against all videos) and the SmugMug app for IOS (black screen and endless buffering) but to no avail..

On querying with SmugMug, the answer I received was that it is a known bug where videos cannot be viewed on a mobile device if it is located within a Private gallery. If I wanted to view them then I should make my gallery 'Unlisted'. I asked if there was a timeframe for when the bug would be fixed but they couldn't give me one.

It makes me very uncomfortable lowering the security on my private galleries, just to be able to view my videos on a phone/tablet but I'm thinking I can't be the only person who has encountered this problem, hence my post. Has anyone found a workaround for this glitch or can you shed any light on when the bug may be fixed?

Many thanks in advance

denisegoldberg

Have you considered making the gallery unlisted and adding a password (assuming that a password will work on mobile)?

It's unlikely that someone will guess the URL for an unlisted gallery. While the tacked on piece of the unlisted URL is short I would be very surprised if someone can guess it.

pablos29

Thanks Denise. Yes I think this may be my only option (although I haven’t tested the password on mobile yet), the thought of making my family photos less secure than ‘private’ makes me uneasy but I don’t think I’ll have a choice for a while..I just hope that this bug is on the radar to be fixed soon!

sdb

Hi Pablo, as for private webpages I can't answer because I don't use it, but I can confirm that galleries (or folder/pages) works fine with password on mobile.
I've many of them and my clients never had an issue.

leftquark

Hi @pablos29,
The bug is on our radar -- unfortunately Apple's video player doesn't like the way that we ensure you are actually the owner and the bug requires some extra work on our end. The team is hard at work on a few other projects and rather than risk making a quick fix that could weaken the security of your photos we've opted to temporarily focus on finishing up our other projects and then we'll come back to fixing this issue. Stay tuned

pablos29

Thanks for the confirmation sdb..
@leftquark I'm not surprised that there are issues with Apple and I'm glad it's on the radar for you guys to look at, I'd definitely find it beneficial when it's fixed.